Friday Update
Well, I visited with Doug Burgum and got the lowdown on the future of Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
He said its all the rage
Just kidding, fellow Dynamics consultants.
I attended Doug’s keynote session and was pleased with what I saw and heard regarding the future for Microsoft Dynamics. A $500 million advertising and air cover campaign is about to be unleashed. They also showed us some of the early work on the product, which is directed at creating branding and awareness of the Dynamics brand. I thought it was pretty good work.
During a lighthearted part of his talk, Doug was in charge of rumor control and pointed out some falsehoods and corrections to various “rumors” floating out there. It’s nice to see a senior executive who doesn’t get too full of himself.
Doug opened and closed his presentation with a warm “Thank You” to all the folks who have been working hard to make MBS a success.
South Central Region Reception
I made it over to the Hyatt to attend the reception for the South Central Region, and found out when I got there that it was a little bigger than the South Central Region … it turned out to be the whole Central Region. I met several Microsoft Partners and Microsoft Team members, and we all had a good time visiting and learning more.
I looked across the room and who do I see? Doug Burgum and Todd Cione from the Central Region visiting with partners.
Dinner on Friday
We left the reception at the Hyatt and headed to Dallas’ West End for dinner, ending up at one of our favorite seafood restaurants, Landry’s. While waiting for our dinner, I happened to glance over to the TV behind the bar – and lo and behold, the brand new Microsoft Dynamics commercial was running during the NCAA basketball game on CBS. I guess $20 million was spent right there?! It looks good on the TV as well.
Partner Advisory Board Meeting on Saturday
After I got up early to come across downtown to attend the PAB, the first thing I noticed was that the room was too small for the number of people they were expecting, and there was no coffee or continental breakfast! Well, for the mild mannered, there was no breakfast. Some PAB participants were a bit greedy, went nearby to a fully cooked breakfast buffet and brought it in to our meeting. Our host politely pointed out that the breakfast was not for us.
I found our discussion on Share Point very interesting and informative. I was wondering why the headcount and coffee setup for the PAB was not managed from within Share Point. How do you get more people than you have seats planned for at a meeting that was planned in advance? If the fire marshal had strolled by, I think we would have been out of business
and quite frankly, I was a little nervous about too many people in the room Probably 100 in a room set up for 70. I look forward to learning more about Share Point and how Microsoft plans to use its collaboration tool to better manage attendance and logistics at future events.
Navision Advisory Board Meeting on Saturday
Still a little shaken from the crowded room earlier in the day, the final event of the day for me were the special interest groups. This was much better with a group of 20 getting briefed on the Dynamics NAV 5.0 version that it is coming out later this fall. Again, I was very impressed with what I saw in the product. We were briefed by several key developers from the Core Team in both Denmark and Atlanta. I want to thank both groups for presenting a lot of good information in under an hour or so.
A Final Thought
As I head back to the airport, I noted our leader, Bill Gates, made the cover of the Business Section for the Dallas Morning News. Nice to know we are newsworthy in someone’s eyes. Aside from some logistical problems, this event was huge. I venture to say it will be a great success!